Tariff fallout continues

Reuters reports that Chinese officials have said trade talks won’t resume anytime soon after President Donald Trump contended Chinese companies are bolting to Vietnam and elsewhere because of the tariffs.

Closer to home, Bloomberg reports the Trump administration’s $15 billion to $20 billion aid package for U.S. farmers hurt by the tariffs may include payments of $2 a bushel for soybeans, 63 cents per bushel for wheat and 4 cents per bushel for corn.

The administration last year paid $1.65 per bushel for soybeans, 14 cents per bushel for wheat and 1 cent per bushel for corn, Bloomberg reported.

Soybeans for July delivery fell as much as 1.5% to $8.19 a bushel immediately after Bloomberg reported the administration’s proposal. Karl Setzer, market analyst at Agrivisor in Bloomington, Ill., said soybean futures dropped on “the knee-jerk reaction to possibly even more soybeans planted to take advantage of the subsidy,” Bloomberg reported.

The plan has not been officially announced.

“Details on the new trade mitigation program will be forthcoming shortly, but we want to be clear that the program is being designed to avoid skewing planting decisions one way or another,” the USDA said in an emailed statement.